On April 30th, Japanese Embassy, in cooperation with General Presidency of Youth Welfare and Saudi Karate Federation, held “Japanese Ambassador’s Cup” for Karate sparring matches, called Kumite, of open weight as part of Saudi National Karate Championship.
The Ambassador of Japan Mr. Norihiro Okuda awarded prizes to the winners, highly appreciating their performance, especially the beautiful manner based on rigorous discipline of the Saudi players. Japanese martial arts called Budo, including Karate, have been reevaluated as an effective way of educating students and officers for the measures of self-discipline and nurturing the sense of respect to others. The Ambassador expressed his delight as he observed that traditional virtue of Karate thrives in Saudi Arabia.
“In 2020, Japan will hold Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and I expect Saudi players to show distinction there as we observed today,” the Ambassador said. Karate athletes and fans all over the world have been ardently calling for inclusion of Karate into the Olympic Games, and now the anticipation is growing as recently Tokyo’s organizing committee selected the Japanese traditional sport as one of five additional sports to be proposed to the International Olympics Committee. “Toward the Olympics, I heartily wishes that the two countries cooperate more and more for the Saudi Karate and this Japanese Ambassador’s Cup contributes to such momentum.” The Ambassador told in the opening speech.